


Only Friend

by PortalPanda



Category: Portal (Video Game)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Portal Stories: Mel
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-09-07
Updated: 2020-09-07
Packaged: 2021-03-06 21:42:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 968
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26342080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PortalPanda/pseuds/PortalPanda
Summary: During their escape from GLaDOS, Chell and Wheatley encounter a badly damaged core.
Relationships: Chell & Wheatley (Portal)
Comments: 2
Kudos: 32





	Only Friend

Wheatley led Chell through the darkness of Aperture, which might have been more frightening if he’d stop talking long enough for her to focus on how little she could see. As it was, she did her best to stay in the path of his flashlight and make sense of whatever he was saying. (Robot ghosts? Really?)

They were in a smaller room now, and Chell sincerely hoped her guide knew where they were going.

“Oi! It’s dark in here!” Wheatley fussed. “Can’t even see my own hands in front of my face. Or, well, if I had hands, I wouldn’t be able to see them in front of my face. If I also had a face. With the hands.” 

The light stuttered every time the core blinked, causing Chell to freeze as the world plunged into blackness. After all, observation was the first step in the scientific method. Chell knew that there was no sense in  _ moving  _ in this place without some kind of information on what was in front of her. Now, though, she paused prematurely. And it wasn’t the darkness that made her stop-- it was a sound. 

“Wait-- did you hear something?” Wheatley froze on his rail. The flashlight beam abandoned Chell once again, flitting around the room like a searchlight. “Someone talking, I mean? Other than me?” 

He blinked, shifting back on his rail as Chell shoved a finger towards his optic; a clear call for quiet. 

“Right, right.” 

They stood there for a minute, still and silent, waiting for a sound that never came. Wheatley had a better view than his human companion, what with being higher up, and so he spotted something she didn’t.

“What’s that light over there?” He whispered, far too loudly. The flashlight beam flicked ahead of her, and Chell noticed another, weaker light at the end of it. Something compelled her to rush towards it (for the record, she could see where she was going). Wheatley did not appreciate her running off without him. 

The source of the light (and the sound) was a core. Somehow it had gotten off its rail and was sitting on a table. Another core was sitting next to it, and its optic was open but… blank. Dead. The still functioning core was old and badly damaged; their optic was flickering; they were covered in rust. 

Wheatley was appalled.

“Oh God!” He yelped, “Don’t, don’t go any closer! They’re-they’re corrupted! Or, well, they could be corrupted. Have some sort of, of deadly virus, or some type of metal eating… parasite… thing…” 

Wheatley shuddered, horrified, but the human took another step towards the pitiful core. 

“No! No, no, no what are you doing I said  _ stop  _ not get  _ closer _ !” 

“Mel? Is that you?”

Chell was hardly fond of AI at this point, but she couldn’t help the pang of sympathy she felt as the broken robot looked up at her. His gaze was… hopeful. Who was she to take away someone’s hope?

“ _ Mel _ ? Who-” Wheatley’s voice died as Chell nodded, placing a hand on the core’s hull. “Wait, what are you- why are you-”

“I always knew you’d come back,” the other core said, and he sounded relieved but his voice was choked. He closed his optic as he leaned into her touch. “Why did you keep me waiting for so long?”

Chell felt it, the moment something went wrong. The core stilled against her hand. He’d given off a kind of whirring sound before, probably too loud to be healthy, but that was much better than the silence left behind now. 

“Oh no…” Wheatley murmured, optic shrinking. “Poor bloke… he’s…. he’s gone offline.” 

Chell stared at the now still core. For some reason, she was unable to remove her hand. 

Wheatley gave her the equivalent of a frown, which she didn’t see.

“Are you alright?” 

He didn’t know as much about Chell as he should, all things considered, but he did know that she wasn’t very expressive, and she generally didn’t offer contact. So of course Wheatley was concerned when he saw such open  _ sadness  _ in her eyes, which (for some reason) only intensified as she looked up at him. She gave his hull a gentle tap. 

What? Was she worried about--

_ Oh _ .

“Oh no, oh no, no, no, oh love, that won’t- that won’t happen to me.” Wheatley gave a nervous laugh, which wasn’t nearly as reassuring as either of them would have liked.

Chell pursed her lips, returning her gaze to the broken core. She was usually so stoic. What was it about watching a robot she didn’t even know shut down that upset her so much? Really, Wheatley was the one who should be upset. It wasn’t as if a  _ human  _ had died. And come to think of it, if Chell could be mistaken for this ‘Mel,’ then they (she?) must have  _ been  _ a human. Had they become friends with this core, and then left him here to rot? What kind of friend would do something like that?

Wheatley and Chell exchanged an uneasy look.

“You wouldn’t--” he stopped. He wasn’t exactly known for his intelligence, but even he knew there were some questions better left unanswered. “Uh, nevermind. Forget I said anything.” 

They looked down at the darkened cores for a moment longer, awash with grief and something like guilt.

“There’s nothing we can do for him now. Best to keep moving.”

Best not to think about what they’d seen, but neither one of them would succeed at that. 

Chell touched each of the dormant cores, some strange human ritual, before adjusting her grip on the portal gun and moving out. 

The darkness was worse, now. What they’d seen was enough to make Wheatley go quiet (for the time being).

At least, Chell thought, neither of them was alone. 

**Author's Note:**

> This fic is based off of a post by sirsquidfish-thefirst on tumblr. Full credit to them for this amazing, upsetting idea.
> 
> This has been sitting in my WIPs since 2016, so some parts of this are really old. The line about the deadly virus? That was already there. I wrote that waaaaay before the pandemic. 
> 
> Comments and kudos are greatly appreciated! More Portal fic is on the way, it may just take a bit.


End file.
